The 2015 tourist season at the Port of Gdansk comes to an end

25.09.2015

Last Thursday, along with a the docking of the Europe with 608 people on board, marked the official end of the 2015 season at the Port of Gdansk.

The season was launched exactly 4 months ago with the docking of the Serenissima and ended with a grand total of 25 vessels docked and 10,814 passengers handled at the Port of Gdansk during this period. These figures are slightly worse than the previous year's results, but most of the ports along the Baltic Sea basin right from the outset had predicted that the current year would be a little weaker compared with last year. Despite this, Gdansk did actually manage to break a few records.

We already know that 2015 was by far the best ever when it comes to the size of the ships serviced at the port. The average length was as much as 172 meters whereas, for comparison purposes, even 5 years ago this average stood at 143 meters and a decade ago - as low as 122 meters.

Another record concerned the average number of passengers per docking. During the season that has just ended, there was an average of 433 passengers per ship - the second most successful result in the history of the Port of Gdansk. Only in 2003 was there a slightly better result, when the average number of passengers per ship amounted to 481 people.

As we announced at the beginning of the season, the largest unit which called at Gdansk this year was the Marina with 1223 people on board and the Ocean Dream, which carried 1,023 passengers to Gdansk.

The next piece of good news is the number of passenger ships already announced for next year. At the moment, we already have 24 such units, which in practice can mean a very large increase in the number of passenger ships docking at the port next year. Generally speaking, the peak of ship pre-arrival notification falls at the end of the year. Therefore, if today the pre-arrival notification of passenger vessels destined for Gdansk amounts to 24 units it can not be excluded that the following year will bring a record number of cruise liners to Gdansk with more visitors on board. This stands as a confirmation of how tremendously attractive and popular Gdansk has become among tourists. We mentioned this on our website a few days ago in relation to the Seatrade Cruise and River Cruise Convention in Hamburg, during which the Port of Gdansk presented their range of services together with the Gdansk Tourist Organisation.

The huge interest generated in our stand, as we described, is really the best possible summary of the last tourist season and the prospects for this market in Gdansk over the years to come.